My Apologies for Absence

[Gerald Lawrence]

I am sorry I have been away for so long, but the problem I had with my computer turned out to be not what I thought it was.

Just a few days before going on holiday, I had a major crash, and thought my installation of Windows XP had been corrupted. When I got back, a re-load of Windows fixed it - but only for about a week. The fault was the same, but each time I mended it, it broke again with less and less time between crashes.

It proved to be the hard drive with Windows on it (the C:\ drive). Instead of dying and doing the honourable thing by falling on its sword, it chose to prolong the agony by keep restructuring all the files to avoid the parts of the drive that were failing. I swapped it for a new one, and when I then tested the old one, it failed the test with the confirming words "Too many bad sectors detected". If only I had known that at the start I could have saved myself hours of reinstalling XP and all my software time and time again! It was only installed in March this year, so it is going back under warranty. I am so glad I have all my work backed up onto an external drive, so I should be able to resume the work I am doing on this website without too much difficulty.

My holiday included a visit to the island of Orkney, where my wife and I met up with Elma and Brian. Elma is a life-long fan of Ruby's, and you may remember she very kindly provided me with, among other things, the lovely picture of Ruby in the red sweater. She used to be in telephone contact with Ruby, right up to a couple of days before she passed away, and has been very interesting to talk to. Brian does have a computer, but so far Elma has kept well away from it! I keep hoping that one day they will log onto this Message Board and join in with the discussions here, but so far no luck.

Anyway, it's good to be back, and let's hope it lasts this time!

[Timmer]

It proved to be the hard drive with Windows on it (the C:\ drive). Instead of dying and doing the honourable thing by falling on its sword, it chose to prolong the agony by keep restructuring all the files to avoid the parts of the drive that were failing.

Just wanted to say I loved that line. Glad to hear all is well again and sorry to hear about the computer frustrations.